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Stroke. Coloured computed tomography (CT) brain scans (axial view) through the brain of a 38- year-old male stroke patient. The stroke occured four weeks before the scans were taken. The pink region is an area of internal bleeding, or haemorrhage. Stroke, or cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is brain damage caused by the interruption of the brain's blood supply or by the leakage of blood through blood vessel walls. The two main causes are high blood pressure and atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries due to fat deposition). Strokes vary in severity but can result in long-term paralysis, coma and death.